Casgliadau Arlein

Fragment of heavy cast bronze with chases for inlay originally in the form of a honeysuckle or palmette motif. The fragment has a slightly dished appearance resulting from a slight lengthwise and sideways concave curve. None of the edges of the fragment are original but the long straight chase on the left of the fragment is probably the central element of what must have been a symmetrical motif. This, and the curve outwards towards the implied edges, suggests that the piece was originally scallop shaped, but now with a bite out on the lower right. The front of the object is finely finished and highly polished; the back rough.

The implied shape, the decorative motif and the constructional details noted above suggest that the fragment represents the remains of a pteryx from a large scale cuirassed bronze statue. It should be compared with the pteryx fragment from the Basilica Principiorum at Caerleon. Robinson suggests that, in the case of the actual, as opposed to the sculptural muscle cuirass, the scalloped tabs which appear in the sculpture along the line of the lower edge of the curiass were attached not the cuirass itself but to a leather arming doublet, to which the longer, lower leather pteryges were also attached. He further suggests that the decoration shown in statuary on these scallped tabs consisted in actuality of embossed metal plates. Thus the facts that the Usk object is of cast bronze, is curved and has no means of attachment at the rear all argue against its interpretation as part of a functional pteryx from an actual muscle curiss and confirm its identification as a fragment of statuary.